Controlling The Dangerous Classes

In Controlling the Dangerous Classes, criminologist Randall G. Shelden traces the history of the criminal justice system and its historical biases through the development of the police institution and the juvenile justice and prison systems. It demonstrates that the development, interpretation, and application of these laws has been aimed at controlling those from the most disadvantaged communities — the “dangerous classes.” Professor Noam Chomsky wrote that the text is a

"...penetrating and highly informative study (that) unravels the historical roots of contemporary criminal justice systems and places them in the context of measures to sustain hierarchies of class, gender and race."